Guest Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 I'm trying to sail my dinghy in rougher conditions (well, it is more the case that I want to be skilled enough to get home if the weather turns bad). So, I have a couple of questions. Does anyone have any tips for reefing while out on the water if sailing alone? Is it just a matter of pointing into the wind and trying to get it done a quick as possible? With the wind increasing, do you go from sailing with jib and mainsil to sailing with mainsil only to sailing with reefed mainsil; or do you sail with gib and reefed mainsil at some point? My boat sails fine with mainsil alone (i.e., the weather helm is perfectly managable), and I worry that the gib and reefed mainsil combination may mean that I end up with lee helm, which I don't want. I haven't tested it though. Any thoughts? Thanks! Link to post Share on other sites
RushMan 31 Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 What sort of boat? Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 It's a kauri dinghy made in the 1940s. Link to post Share on other sites
Grinna 2 Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Looks a bit like an Idle Along Link to post Share on other sites
Farrari 4 Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 We teach the scouts to heave to when reefing. There would be no reason why you couldn't do that single handed with a little bit of practise. To heave to all you need to do is go through a tack but not release to jib sheet so as it backwinds. Lash the till so as it continuously tries to round you up and with a little weight balance you should be able to keep it there. Make sure you don't let the main fill. This takes some practise so it's worth while trying before you need it. From there you should be able to drop the main halyard and install the reef. If it gets windy we reef the main but keep the jib up. If it gets to the point where you can't handle this then you drop the main and sail downwind to the most convenient (or not) location under jib. We have done this a few times in the old days with the 18ft skiff when we got caught out with too much rag up. Others may have other preferences/idea's. BTW - a very nice looking yacht. Link to post Share on other sites
Variant 2 Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 From the pic I see you have one reefing point in the main and fixed jib. That is basically the same as I had on the Jollyboat. I would prerun the reefing lines before heading out if it looked fresh. I was able to reef while on the water by just sheeting the jib on hard and letting the main luff a bit, keeping just enough way on to keep into the wind while dropping it. If your boat is happy with main alone, how about a jib furler? otherwise heading to the bow to pull it down would probably cause a capsize. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Thanks all. Yeah, the guy I bought the boat from did a great job in restoring it after finding it in a field. He got 1940s pictures of it from the original owners. A few people have told me that it looks like an Idle Along, although I believe that is a bigger boat? I didn't know you could get jib furlers for dinghys, but I have now had a quick look on the Internet. Cool. Looks like i have a bit to practise -- sailing under jib alone, heaving to, and Variant's method. All those techniques require a gib though; If I haven't got the jib then I guess Variant's prerunning of the reefing lines is pretty important. I'm still trying to work out the logic of how heaving to works (I have a diagram in a book but the explanation isn't great). Does anyone know a good link? What angle does the bow end up relative to the wind? I.e., after completing the tack, does the bow remain pointing on the new tack? Which way is the jib trying to turn the boat after it backwinds? Thanks again! Link to post Share on other sites
Farrari 4 Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Try this gp http://www.gosailing.info/Heaving%20To.htm Link to post Share on other sites
candyman 0 Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 Before you reef, don't forget sail "get me home" settings centreboard up a bit (thats what Farrari tells me anyhow) , and ease the kicker to spill wind from the top of the sail. Oh and if your mast has a halyard lock, good luck reefing in all but conditions that you will not really need to reef in. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 If you do have a halyard lock, just capsize, unlock it, reef while capsized, stand up and viola... that's what we did a lot as kids. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 Thanks Farrari, that's a great link. Not sure what a halyard lock is. My halyard is just wound around a cleat on the mast. It has been highly recommended to me to never capsize my boat. Something to do with the water pressure damaging the boat. I imagine it would be a major effort to right again anyway, given its weight and the amount of water it would take on. Link to post Share on other sites
DrWatson 380 Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 With respect to capsizing, you might actually want to practice a controlled capsize, because one day, when you're out there in a bit more breeze, something will go pear shaped and you will end up on your side. Practicing what to do in that situation in a calm controlled manner may well be worth it. perhaps you could make sure you have some buoyancy bags stuffed inside or attached to make things more controlled. We made our rig for the paperjet so we could reef the main. It's a bloody tippy little boat so i'm not sure how I'll actually reef it while on the water. We did put the jib on a furler though, against my better judgement. It only unfurls when the headstay tension is eased to useless - so with any other tension the sail doesn't furl out right unless there is +15 knts. bloody pain in the bum. A downhaul line would have been easier, but would have cluttered the miniscule foredeck. On your boat though, it might be something to think about. R Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 Thanks Dr Watson Okay, I have a few additional questions now that I have tried a few things (and had the occasional epic). 1. First, I've tried hoving to on a number of days' sailing, and I haven't been able to do it. If you look at the diagram in the link that Farrari linked to, you'll see the boom is at 90 degrees to the boat. But I can't do this, because my sidestays come back past the mast a bit. So, I can't totally depower the mainsil unless I turn a bit into the wind. But if I turn at all into the wind, the jib provides forward momentum; i.e., the jib works just like it does when on the lee side of the boat. Even if I have full tension on the windward jib sheet, the jib still gets a lovely curve to it. So, in conclusion, no matter what I have done so far, I simply end up sailing away. 1a. The other problem with the hoving-to diagram is that I only want to hove to in order to reef the mainsil, which I can't do if the boom is at 90 degrees to the boat. Any thoughts? 2. I'd love to practise righting the boat, and was going to do it when I first got the boat. But on the day I went to give it a go, some sailors who seemed to know what they were talking about talked me out of it. They said the boat wouldn't handle the pressure of water inside the boat once the boat was righted, and I'd probably blow the stern out. It would be great to get a definitive answer on this. Does anyone know a person with some expertise in this area? 2a. I have been searching for bouyancy bags for the last couple of years. I've asked in a few shops but no-one has been able to help me. Where can I get some? 3. I've started looking into jib furlers. I see that Furlex make one. Has anyone used it? I thought I'd find more than I have on the Internet about home-made furlers and reefing systems, but have been a bit disappointed. 4. In general, I need a super-quick reefing system for the main and a furler for the jib. I mainly sail alone and on Lyttleton Harbour, where the wind can go from dead calm to too much for me to handle in the space of a couple of minutes. For reefing, my outstanding issue (other than how to hove to) is what to do with the tack of the sail. There is a hole to use on the luff at the height of the reefing holes, but there is nothng to attach it to, and it doesn't fit the fixture for the tack. If any one has a link to a diagram or video of some examples of reefing systems fo various dinghies, I'd be interested to know. 5. Also, are there ties for quickly tucking away the foot of the sail when reefing? I'm just using cord and tieing reef knots, but I'd prefer to use something that only requires one hand. I have seen someone using one-handed ties in a video, but the video didn't show what the ties were. 6. On a related theme, things got exciting a few weeks ago when I sailed into a patch of intense wind. I wasn't reefed and had the jib up. I was on a beam reach, and I initially tried to turn so I would be closed hauling, which is my preference when things are getting too much. But because I was having to spill so much wind with the mainsil, the wind was blowing the bow of the boat around. I had to release the jibsheet to avoid capsizing, but even then I couldn't get around to a close haul. Essentially the problem was (a) there was still a little wind in the jib because my jibsheets were tied together and weren't long enough and ( with the mainsil spilling most of the wind, most of its sail area was in front of the dagger board. I guess I could have got closer to the wind if I'd pulled the mainsil in to adjust the sail balance, but I wasn't going to do that given the wind strength (I might not even have been able to, it was that windy). So, in the end I just had to head off on a training run until I got out of the bad patch. That was fine, but it left me a bit shaken. I am just wondering if anyone cared to comment? Is there something else that I could have done? Thanks! Link to post Share on other sites
RushMan 31 Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 The link diagram is a little confusing I feel. If you read the notes you are trying to have the boat at 45 to the wind (the diagram shows a position at 90 to the wind) It will take some practise to find the correct amount of jib sheet and angle of helm down. Good luck but it will be worth it. Link to post Share on other sites
grant 40 Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 I've come across this for a furler, http://navigatorjoel.blogspot.com/2010/ ... er-40.html haven't tried it but looks good cheers Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 Thanks fellas. I've worked out #4 now. I found this article to be useful: http://www.sailnet.com/forums/learning- ... efing.html But the more reefing setups I see, the better. So if anyone has links or pictures, please send them my way. All the home-made furlers I've found on the Internet are of the PVC-pipe design. Since my mast isn't going to be permanently up, this isn't ideal. The one in Grant's link looks really nice, but doesn't work with my type of gib sadly. Cheers. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Question #314: how is it that the halyard does not prevent the head of the sail from rotating when furling? Does the head of the sail in fact rotate? Also, the purpose of the the swivel mechanism/shackle at the end of the halyard is lost on me. --------------- Ok, I'm editing this to answer my own questions, in case someone else has spent two days trying to work it out and finds this thread. The homemade PVC pipe jobs (for jibs that clip to the forestay) on the Internet don't use halyards. A halyard would be useless anyway, since the pipe prevents a sail from being hoisted/taken down. The dinghy-specific commercial systems (e.g., Seldon Furlex 20S, or the homemade version linked to earler in this thread), which consist of furler and top swivel, aren't for sails that clip to the forestay. Therefore the halyard isn't trying to wrap around the forestay. So, as far as I can work things out so far, the best option for a dinghy with a jib that is clipped to the forestay (like mine) is to go for a halyard-less-style PVC pipe, which you will have to slide on and off with the sail during setup and packing up. Link to post Share on other sites
grant 40 Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 another option... have you considered just putting a downhaul on the jib? run a light line from about one or two clips below the head of the jib down to an eye (or block if you prefer) near the bottom of the forestay and then back along the deck. Have a lashing attached somewhere that can go around the sail once its down. To get rid of the jib, let go the halyard, haul on the downhaul (gets it down quick and stops it getting blown back up the stay) and throw a quick lashing around the bulk of the sail. Sail is down and under control and best of all its quick and cheap to install just a thought... Link to post Share on other sites
203 0 Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 another option... have you considered just putting a downhaul on the jib? run a light line from about one or two clips below the head of the jib down to an eye (or block if you prefer) near the bottom of the forestay and then back along the deck. Have a lashing attached somewhere that can go around the sail once its down. To get rid of the jib, let go the halyard, haul on the downhaul (gets it down quick and stops it getting blown back up the stay) and throw a quick lashing around the bulk of the sail. Sail is down and under control and best of all its quick and cheap to install just a thought... Thats not a bad idea if I say so myself.. Just tie a bowline or your choice of knot where the halyard attaches to, , a pulley on the bow, and a cleat, Your all set! Link to post Share on other sites
grant 40 Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 best to tie on just below the halyard attachment, reason being if you pull down from the peak it will twist the top sail hank and possibly jamb. although the sails I've used this method one on were way larger and heavier than this one! Link to post Share on other sites
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